Aurora Awards 2026

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NASA#2007934

Dear Readers,

The Aurora Awards, which are for Canadian science fiction and fantasy writers and artists, are open for nominations for the 2025 works! (Nominations are open until April 5) This means the LONG lists of eligible works are being narrowed down to 5-6 per category.

Once they have a list of nominated works, every single person who signed up and paid the $10 membership fee gets ALL the nominated works as downloads. That’s all the adult novels, YA novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels, and related works (usually anthologies), so about 36 works, for just $10 CAD, which is a great deal.

Getting nominated for an Aurora Award is a BIG DEAL in the speculative fiction writing community. You get a nomination pin (only once, so I’m terrified I’ll lose mine!), and you’re part of an elite group of people.

Nomination forms are not ranked.

How do you nominate?

  1. Go to this website: https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/
  2. Join, pay membership fee
  3. Nominate up to 5 works per category https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/nomination/

It would mean a lot to all of us if you’re willing to nominate us! (Categories are in alphabetical order by work)

  • Eligibility Category 2 – Best Young Adult Novel
    • The Copper Tarnish by Éric Desmarais
    • Winging It by Jen Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 3 – Best Novelette/Novella
    • The Scarlet Thread Irregulars by Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 4 – Best Short Story
    • Harvest Special by Jen Desmarais
    • I am Snowman by Éric Desmarais
    • Plants, Fungus, and Zombies! by Éric Desmarais
    • Snow Day by Jen Desmarais
    • The Puzzles of Everdome by Éric Desmarais
    • The Summer of ’99 and How I Died by Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 6 – Best Poem/Song
    • The Ballad of the Phantom and the Wraith by Jen Desmarais, found in Winging It by Jen Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 7 – Best Related Work
    • Connections! The Unexpected First Collection by Jen and Éric Desmarais
  • Eligibility Category 9 – Best Fan Writing/Publication
    • JenEric Movie Reviews by Éric Desmarais
    • The Travelling TARDIS by Jen Desmarais

In case you’re wondering why Winging It is not included in the best cover art category, it’s because our cover artist is Vietnamese! Only Canadian creators are eligible, unfortunately. We forgot to include The Copper Tarnish in this category because we’re not used to having art made by us! Éric did the cover for it.
Thank you so much for your time, attention, and support. If any of the above does make it through the nomination round, which ends April 5, we’ll write another post for the voting round, which will be taking place starting in June 2026.

Read safe!

Éric

Shadowbox: Faymous

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I got the idea to make shadowbox out of the cover image of our books, and I thought it would be fun for you to have access as well.

Template Download

Materials:
Paper (or cardstock)
Colour printer
Scissors
Exacto knife
Cutting board
Tape (or glue)
Patience

Instructions:

  1. Print the template provided (PDF download above)
  2. Cut out the pieces using scissors
  3. Cut out the greyed out background with the Exacto knife
  4. Tape (or glue) the parts together.

Note: I left some of the empty space on the ‘people’ level to help stabilize it. You can’t actually see it though, because it’s behind the bushes.

Faymous by Jen and Éric Desmarais
Cover art by Pinkpiggy93
eBook
Paperback

The Carmilla Movie – JenEric Movie Review

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How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2017 film The Carmilla Movie.

Story

A sequel to the 3.5 seasons of the web show Carmilla. It does a good job of recapping what happened, but it’s quick. I think someone who hasn’t watched the show would be confused.

The story itself is interesting and really uses the locations well. It felt like a shorter version of the show.

Score: 1

Characters

The characters, even after five years, acted the same and retained the character growth from the show. The new characters were nice but didn’t have much screen time.

Score: 1

Dialogue

The dialogue was flippant and irreverent, just like the show. I particularly appreciated the sound mixing since I didn’t have subtitles.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The visuals were obviously a large improvement from a webcam-based story and were well thought out. The locations, particularly the manor house, were beautiful.

The music was okay but felt lacking at some points.

Score: 0.5

Fun

This really is a love letter to the fans and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Score: 1

Overall

The movie is a lot of fun for those that already have a nostalgic love of the show. If you haven’t watched it, you won’t get as much out of the movie. (Go watch the show.)

Final Score: 4.5 Stars out of 5

March Break

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Hello Friends, Family, and fans;

I had a nice March break. My body finally gave in to the kids’ cold. I was sick the whole week but I got lots of snuggles and lots of time with the kids. We watched almost an entire season of Leverage, read, played video games, and rested.

Do I feel more rested after? No! Do I feel better than before? Also no! Do I feel like I accomplished a lot? Hell no!

But I do feel grateful for my awesome family. I’m just hoping this cold leaves me soon. I hate being stuffy and having trouble thinking.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Going to game

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

I promised my kids we’d do some TTRPG gaming this week. With everyone getting sick, we’ve had to push it back, but today is the day. (I still feel like crap but I’ll have lots of coffee.)

We’ll be playing FADDS (Four Attribute Dual Dodecahedron System) It’s my homemade system that is based off opposing rolls. I’ve slowly been retrofitting it to our books. I’m hoping to release the first version for Westmeath next year.

I sat down with the kids and built their characters, they seemed to follow fairly well. We even used Hero Forge to make them character portraits.

Dragon is Playing Maya, a descendant of Jason and Kennedy from The Gates of Westmeath
Pegasus is playing Rumi from Kpop Demon Hunters but with wings.
Jen is playing Carter from Lucky in Love.

The game will be set in the future of Everdome and have the characters exploring a lost temple from before the Cataclysm.

I hope they have fun. I feel a lot of pressure to make sure they enjoy themselves.

Wish me luck!

Éric

Amazon Everdome
Rakuten Kobo Everdome
Apple Books Everdome